Ian

Ian Devaney

Ian Owen Devaney was born on 9th July 1965 in Manchester, North West England U.K.

He began his musical career as a young kid learning to play the trombone. He soon moved onto having piano lessons and is also self taught on the guitar, a talented song writer and record producer. In recent years he got into cinematography working with film-maker Nick Mead on several documentaries. Ian is also a keen photographer.

Ian met Lisa for the first time at Oulder Hill school in Rochdale, they were both participating in a school play. Several years later they met up by chance in a local pub together with Ian's mate Andy Morris who was involved in several bands and as a session musician. They persuaded Lisa to write some songs which led them to put a band together, Blue Zone was formed. After sending their demo-tape around to the record companies they managed to get themselves a record deal with a small independent label called Rockin' Horse (later taken over by Arista). They spent a year writing and recording their first album Big Thing which was not commercially successful.

During a recording session with Coldcut with Ian and Andy, Lisa was asked to lend her voice on a few tracks just for fun. This led to the amazing dance track People Hold On. Blue Zone's name was effectively dropped to feature just Lisa Stansfield. They continued to work together as a threesome with Lisa taking the role as spokesperson for the band as Ian and Andy concentrated on the production and arrangements.

By the time they released their first album Affection in 1989, Lisa and Ian were already head over heels in love. In the summer of 1998 they got married in New York. Several years later Ian and Lisa bought themselves an apartment there. Nowadays, they split their time between London, L.A and spending time with their family and friends in their initial hometown of Rochdale.

Having worked together since the mid-1980's, Ian and Lisa have continued to compliment each others success on almost every project, whether it be in music or film. If the new album Seven is anything to go by, then long may this magical partnership prosper!